With regards to the “US” Tomahawks and the minor participants in the RL “World” Cup the REAL story is not that the Tomahawks or any of the other sides such as Italy, the Cook Islands and the US were so full of Australian born players that qualified through ancestry rather than being legitimate citizens of the countries they were representing. Yes the Tomahawks did well but they only had 9 American born players.

By and large the minor countries could only have participated in this tournament with the assistance of Aussie nationals lest the tournament be even more of a farce than it already is.

Taking the Tomahakws as an example there are maybe 20 RL teams competing in the US – mostly along the East Coast.

The fact of the matter is that RL is very simply not a global sport. It would have been far more economical as well as more environmentally friendly to play the tournament in Australia – so that so many Aussies would not have had to fly over to represent their various adopted countries.

In the meantime I have been enjoying watching the Eagles spreading their wings with a terrific performance against the Maori as well as toughing out a victory against Georgia.